Of Scratching and Slingshots
by amandajbruce
Summary: Miley wonders about the origins of Lilly's slingshot, and Lilly and Oliver attempt to tell her the story. Set after the events of the episode "Ooh, Ooh, Itchy Woman."


A/N: I think this one shot is currently my favorite story that I've written (so far), so I hope you guys enjoy it! It was partly inspired by me remembering that I missed my Spring Break in the first grade because I had the chicken pox. (Oh, and I do not condone using a slingshot on unsuspecting kids, just so you know.)

Of Scratching and Slingshots

"I can't believe this! Not only do we have poison oak, but Mr. Picker gave us detention too!" Miley scratched her arm, partly in frustration, partly because talking about the poison oak made her feel itchy, and she slid into a desk in the middle of the classroom.

"I know." Oliver groaned and banged his head down on the desk in front of him. "I haven't had detention all semester. I was doing so well."

"It's not that bad. Since Mr. Picker's in charge we just have to sit here and look like we're doing homework. He doesn't make you scrape gum off the sidewalks like Coach Hendricks. And the itching is totally worth the looks on Amber and Ashley's faces when they were covered in all that sludge." Lilly twirled one of her strands of hair around her finger.

"Yeah, that was pretty sweet." Oliver's head popped back up. "And did you see Donny?" The three friends burst into laughter.

Lilly calmed down after a minute and said, "I'm going to be all alone tomorrow though. Who am I going to talk to in here without you guys?" She glanced around and saw a boy stick a piece of gum underneath his own desk near the back of the room. "And please don't say Chad." She and Oliver both shuddered, but Miley looked confused.

"Why do you have to come back tomorrow? We all got in trouble, and Oliver and I don't have to be here," she asked as a few more students filed into the room, taking seats far away from the three friends who were covered in red splotches.

"Somebody let it slip that the welt on Mr. Picker's butt was courtesy of slingshot Lilly over here." Oliver jerked his thumb at the blond in front of him, who was now using a pencil to try to scratch the middle of her back. "Her antihistamines must be starting to wear off," he muttered to Miley.

She brushed him off, saying, "who ratted you out? We hid that thing in the bottom of my bag for the rest of the trip."

"Those two evil nasties we had to share our tent with." Lilly's eyes narrowed. "But I'm not sure how they knew."

"They probably just made something up and got lucky." Miley started tapping her foot, trying to ignore the itching sensation spreading up her leg. "What were you carryin' that thing around for anyway? Eighth grade girls don't keep sling shots in their pocket. That's for little boys."

"It used to be mine." Miley turned her head at the sound of Oliver's voice and raised her eyebrows. Oliver was trying to flick small balls of paper into the garbage can three desks in front of him, and over the top of Lilly's head, to distract himself from his own poison oak. "She stole it from me when we were seven."

"I didn't steal it. It was a gift." Oliver rolled his eyes and Lilly turned and snatched the next ball of paper from his desk.

"I'm pretty sure I let you use it and you never gave it back." Following Oliver's statement, the ball of paper hit him in the middle of the forehead.

"That is so not what happened." Lilly was now twisted around completely in her seat so she could look Oliver in the eye.

Miley looked back and forth between her two best friends while the bickering continued.

"Maybe I should have known better than to even ask."

Once Mr. Picker came into the room, the arguing turned to whispers, and Miley spent the rest of her detention deciphering the real story.

***

It was the day before Lilly Truscott's seventh birthday, and she was not happy. She had a fever, every part of her body itched, and she was no longer allowed to have a birthday party. She looked at the little boy sitting on the dark blue carpet across the room from her. He was completely absorbed in the cartoon his dad turned on, but she wanted to be outside where she was allowed to kick a soccer ball. Instead, she was being quarantined with Oliver Oken in his family's house.

This was all his fault. She did not care that the new girl, Joanie Palumbo, had given Oliver the chicken pox, or that he was miserable too. What she cared about was that Oliver had proceeded to give them to her, and now, no birthday party tomorrow afternoon. Her cousins were in town, staying in her house, playing with her toys, and she was stuck with the boy next door.

Stupid cousins. They were all older than her, and none of them ever had the chicken pox? Lilly considered giving them the pox on purpose when she found that out. Her aunt was bound and determined to keep Lilly away from her precious twins. Of course, if Lilly's mother had not been pregnant with Lilly's soon to be younger brother, she probably would not have cared about her husband's sister. As soon as the first spots appeared on Lilly's arms though, she was told she could stay with the Okens. Oliver and his little brother were both sick and Nancy Oken did not mind adding one more kid to her house.

It had been three days. Three long days. And Lilly was tired of oatmeal baths, anti-itch creams, and most of all, she was tired of Oliver Oken.

Lilly glared at the aforementioned boy yet again. She then picked up the orange crayon from the table next to her and halfheartedly filled in Garfield's fur on a page in Oliver's coloring book. She did not even like the stupid cat. While she scribbled, Oliver turned the volume up on the television and scooted closer to it.

"This show's dumb." Lilly said it mainly to get a reaction from Oliver, and she succeeded.

"It is not!" Though he yelled, he refused to turn his head from the program.

"Yes, it is. Batman isn't even special. At least Wonder Woman has powers." This time Oliver turned to face her, but he looked a little confused.

"Who's that?"

"She's a real super hero. My mom has all her comic books." Lilly said this proudly, not knowing that her mother was a closet comic book reader, and had never told anyone outside of their family that she even owned one.

"Why would a super hero be in a book? That's dumb. All the good ones are on T.V. And girls can't be super heroes!" Being seven, Oliver was still of the opinion that boys were better than girls, although he knew Lilly could probably break his arm if she wanted to.

"Girls can too!" The orange crayon flew across the room and hit Oliver in the leg.

"Ow!" He picked up the pillow next to him and threw it in Lilly's direction.

"Ha! You missed!" The words no sooner left the little girl's mouth when another pillow hit her squarely in the chest.

Soon, the living room was a shambles. And Nancy Oken was now the one who was not happy. All of her decorative pillows were on the floor and she could see chunks of crayon mashed into the new carpet. With her hands on her hips, she sent Oliver to his room and Lilly to the guest room to think about why using crayons and pillows as missiles was inappropriate.

Ten minutes after being sent to the guest room, Lilly was even more bored than before. She had been ready to climb the walls earlier; now she contemplated tying the sheets together to escape out the window.

Never mind that she was on the second floor, or that kind of thing only worked in the movies, and never mind that if she had to plan an escape, Oliver, her best friend in the whole world, was who she would escape to.

She sighed, knowing that Mrs. Oken was probably on the phone with her own mother. Once she was out of quarantine, she was sure she would not be allowed to play with Oliver for a week. She sighed again and heard the door creak open. Looking up from her seat on the bed, she saw Oliver's face in the sliver of space between the door and the frame.

He leaned carefully around the door and asked, "are you still mad at me?"

"No." She huffed. "I'm bored. And my stupid cousins get to play with all my stuff. And they're so stupid." Lilly crossed her arms and looked out the window, the window which happened to face the side of her own house. She watched as two of her older cousins kicked her soccer ball down the strip of grass between the two buildings.

Seeing the angry look in her eyes, Oliver slowly walked the rest of the way into the room and peered through the glass. He climbed onto the bed next to Lilly and pushed open the window. The little boy than pulled his brand new slingshot out of his back pocket.

"I bet I could hit them from here." He wanted Lilly smiling again, and he knew she would be up for revenge.

"Really? It's far." Lilly was doubtful.

"Psssh. It's easy. Do you have any pebbles?"

"Like the cereal?" Now she was confused.

"No, little rocks. That's what my Uncle said you're 'posed to use." Oliver rolled his eyes at Lilly's lack of knowledge about proper slingshot ammo.

"I only have M&Ms." She shrugged helplessly.

"Maybe that will work," he encouraged her.

Lilly crawled over to the end table next to the bed and grabbed the little bag of plain candy coated chocolates Mr. Oken gave to her that afternoon. Oliver loaded a red one into the slingshot, pulled back the chord, and let it fire. He forgot to actually aim though, so the two friends watched as the candy soared from the open window right on to the Truscott roof.

"Whoops." Oliver was a little embarrassed. After all, he was a week long slingshot pro. Lilly was impressed that he had managed to get it all the across to the other house though.

"Let me try." She told him, and loaded a blue candy into the toy. She must not have understood how to use it though, because the chocolate landed in front of them on the quilted bedspread.

"Here, let me show you." Oliver held the sling shot in his hand and showed Lilly just how to pull on the chord, and when to let go. They both giggled when the small candy landed just behind the taller of Lilly's cousins. Neither of her relatives seemed to notice that it was raining junk food.

"We have to aim a little lower," Oliver instructed. He pulled a brown M&M from the bag, but Lilly took it from his hand.

"What?" he asked.

"Not the brown. Those are my favorite," she explained after popping it in her mouth.

"Okay." He pulled out another. "Is yellow okay?"

"Okay."

This time Lilly watched while Oliver did all of the work. She giggled when the candy hit one of her cousin's shoes with a loud "thwack." When the children turned to see what was going on, Lilly and Oliver had already dove out of sight on either side of the window.

The next time, Oliver let Lilly try it on her own. She hit the smaller cousin in the middle of the back, and she should have felt bad when he gave a sharp cry, but he had always been mean to her.

"Oliver!" He jumped away from the window and toward the door when his mother's voice echoed from the hall. Lilly scrambled to hide the slingshot under the pillows. "What are you two doing?" Nancy Oken asked as she walked into the room.

"Nothing." Oliver hiccupped and Lilly giggled, but Mrs. Oken decided to overlook it for the time being.

"Come downstairs for lunch."

***

"So, you did take it." Miley stated to Lilly as the three of them exited the detention classroom.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get it back ever since." Oliver nudged Lilly in the side, but she smacked his hand away, almost sending him into a bank of lockers.

"In my defense, I gave him a Batman beach towel for his birthday, and all he gave me was the chicken pox. He also got a birthday party and I didn't. It was only fair."

"Your mom got me the towel, and for the last time, I did not give you the chicken pox on purpose!" Oliver tossed his hands up in frustration.

"Oh, yeah?" Lilly cut in front of him when he tried to go through the front door.

"Yeah." Oliver hurried to catch up with her.

"You still owe me a birthday present. Until I get one, I keep the slingshot!"

"Oh, sweet niblets." Miley just followed the two of them as they made their way to the parking lot.


End file.
